Father of boy found after 13 years pleads not guilty

CLEVELAND — A boy whose father took him at age 5 from his Alabama home and raised him in Ohio under a false identity recently reconnected with his mother in Alabama, the father’s lawyer said Tuesday after his client pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and other charges.

The 18-year-old who didn't know he was Julian Hernandez visited his mother over Thanksgiving, lawyer Ralph DeFranco said. He provided no details about the reunion between the woman and her son but acknowledged the lost years in that relationship.

“That’s the down side of this, the mother being deprived of access to her son,” DeFranco said. But he said his client, Bobby Hernandez, was a good father and raised a good son — a student-athlete with top grades and college aspirations — and “couldn’t have done any more for him.”

"He's been a perfect father," The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported DeFranco saying.

The mother has declined to comment through her lawyer, Gloria Allred, and the teen has said in a statement that he simply wants privacy and to get back to a normal life.

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Authorities allege that Bobby Hernandez, took the boy from the mother’s home in the Birmingham, Ala., area in 2002, left a note saying so then created a life for them in Ohio under new identities, calling himself Jonathan Mangina. The ruse fell apart this fall when discrepancies with the teen’s Social Security number were discovered as he began the college-application process, leading to Hernandez’s arrest in early November.

DeFranco said Hernandez has been forthcoming about what happened though the lawyer said he could not offer details of the father’s motives.

Hernandez, 53, was arraigned Tuesday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court on 32 counts, including charges of forgery, records tampering and interference with custody. Dressed in an orange jail outfit, he said little during a 3-minute appearance as Judge Carolyn Friedland accepted his not-guilty pleas and maintained his $250,000 bond.

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DeFranco said they would seek a lower bond and eventually talk with prosecutors about a possible plea deal. A pretrial hearing is scheduled Dec. 10.

Hernandez and his son have talked on the phone and seen each other since the arrest, DeFranco said.

Contributing: The Associated Press. Follow WKYC-TV, Cleveland, on Twitter: @wkyc